How -- she -- did -- change."(Glaspell) the second sense of the play's title becomes obvious: there is no place in the male world of overt action for women's fragility and sensibility, symbolized by the singing bird. The two wives intuitively understand that Mrs. Wright's husband could not understand or like "a thing that sang": "No, Wright wouldn't like the bird -- a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too."(Glaspell) Thus, men appear here as insensible and devoid of understanding outside the practical purposes. The play thus emphasizes the importance of the neglected "trifles" of the women's inner lives, which seem unimportant, as they produce no obvious effect on the outer reality. John Wright is described as a good man through the eyes of society, but the women intuitively perceive his coldness and heartlessness, which for them is equal to murder: "Yes -- good; he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him -- [Shivers.] Like a raw wind that gets to the bone."(Glaspell) Wright performs well in society, but the women understand the chilling, murdering effect such a man would have on the joy of life. The women's experience is thus seen almost as a common block: all go through a "different kind of the same thing': "I know how things can be -- for women. I tell you, it's queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things -- it's all just a different kind of the same thing."(Glaspell) Thus, the division of the two worlds, the masculine and the feminine appears to be irreconcilable,...
Susan Glaspell,(Trifles). Please ensure original wor Formal Approach There is a great deal of irony found in Susan Glaspell's work of literature entitled "Trifles." Irony, of course, is when words are used the exact opposite of their literal meaning. The concept of situation irony also exists within literature, in which characters act the exact opposite of the way that a certain situation calls for. An examination of Glaspell's work indicates that
The words on the page are powerful as Williams uses symbolism to emphasize moods. Viewing the play with the plays of light and shadows would be a delight because we could see the characters moving in and out of darkness. August Wilson's play, Fences, is titled such because of the fences people tend to build between one another. This is demonstrated with Troy and Cory, who cannot agree upon much.
Wright as well as their own lives. Putting aside the fact that Toomer's Cane is a much different piece -- it is not a play and is much lengthier than Trifles -- the language, form and mood vary significantly. For example, "Fern," one of the stories in the Cane collection, first appears to be a portrait of an exquisite woman who nobody understands. However, the reader soon realizes that she
Holmes always solves the crime, and that fact is very satisfying to the reader. Similarly, the two women are inadvertently unearthing the clues to the murder alongside the searching investigators. Glaspell endears us to the two women through the use of personal experiences and memories. Through their similarities, the two women also endear the reader to Minnie Wright. This closeness in character makes it perfectly acceptable when the women
Susan Glaspell's Trifles The title of Susan Glaspell's drama Trifles indicates that it will deal with seemingly small matters: as Mrs. Hale says of the pivotal prop in the stage-play -- "Wouldn't they just laugh? Getting all stirred up over a little thing like a -- dead canary!" (Glaspell 27-8). Yet Mrs. Hale's sense that, if a male audience could see her dialogue with Mrs. Peters in Trifles by Susan Glaspell,
In reality, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are even more invested in the investigation than the men, because they demonstrate an attention to detail that the men lack. By the time the men return from their fruitless investigations, the women have determined both why and how Mrs. Wright murdered her husband, and they even come to the decision not to supply the evidence without ever alerting the men. Furthermore,
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